A wet & miserable cold day. The company goes 6 miles away to dig trenches to safeguard the road to Calais, agony of agonies with being wet, cold & suffering from cramped sore & wet feet – English fashion boots. At night we get an issue of rum about 2 ounces. Very cold at night sleeping in an open wagon. A man of the Essex Regiment shot for desertion & insolence (a few days ago). There is now a man waiting under death sentence to be shot for insolence & drunkenness.

*Calais – Calais was a town very close to the front line in Flanders during WWI. It was a key port for arms and reinforcement on the western front during the war.